The present invention relates to an energy storage and power management system, including programming code and algorithms for the power management system, and, more particularly, to a system to manage the storage of energy to, and the release of energy from, an energy storage system with such energy being generated from one or more sources such as solar, wind, fuel cell generator, other types of generators included but not limited to diesel, natural gas, bio mass, combined heat and power, etc., other types of renewable sources or the electric grid, or a combination of any or all of these sources, resulting in a reduction of the power demand from the electric grid of a user of the system and/or of the high consumption charges during peak usage times of a user of the system.
Many electricity suppliers, typically utility companies, throughout much of the United States and abroad charge their commercial customers not only for the consumption of electricity but also a demand, or distribution, charge. The calculation of this demand charge varies from supplier to supplier, but is generally based upon the peak power demand that a customer uses from the electric grid in a billing cycle—often called peak demand. Recently, demand charges have become an increasing part of commercial customer's electricity costs. Certain electricity suppliers have begun to charge residential customers demand charges, and that charge is expected to be implemented by additional electricity suppliers.
Additionally, unrelated to demand charges, electricity suppliers often charge a higher rate for the consumption of electricity for commercial and residential customers during certain times of day when overall demand on the electricity supplier is often high, which is often during the early afternoon hours.
It is commonly known to those skilled in the art when it is most advantageous to use a particular source of energy, whether generated by one or more renewable energy sources, the electric grid, other sources or any combination thereof and whether or not such energy has been stored in an energy storage system. This is most advantageous to receive improved consideration if selling such energy, or to reduce energy costs either by reducing demand charges or by reducing consumption charges if using such energy.
Recently, interest has increased in using renewable energy sources for reasons that include, but are not limited to, increased demands for energy, increased costs of energy, increased desire for energy independence, the availability of government subsidies and increased public concerns about pollution from fossil fuels. Two of the most common and best-developed renewable energy sources are solar energy and wind energy, although many others exist now and are expected to be developed in the future. One of the biggest challenges for implementing wide-spread use of renewable energy sources is that renewable energy sources typically provide a variable and somewhat unpredictable energy supply. The amount of energy generated by a renewable energy source could vary because of reasons such as varied wind conditions and availability of sunlight, each overall for a particular site or for a particular day or time. This variability of when and how much the renewable energy sources generate energy makes it difficult to use the energy created from the renewable energy sources when the end user will receive superior financial benefits from that energy.